The Galapagos!!

It has been fantastic here, there are sea lions (not seals apparently but I personally don't know the difference) that swim around your boat and with you. Although if you get too close on land they bark at you and apparently that means they're getting ready for a bite. It's neat to see families swimming at the beach with sea lions all around swimming and hanging out. And of course you can hear them all the time, the little babies sound like sheep and make a "baa" noise. Alex also got to swim with some turtles, no pics because it's really hard to catch them on camera. We should get an underwater one for next time. There are lots of crabs, and pelicans and boobies of course. Alex saw the famed blue footed boobie, but I didn't get that close. And we finally saw some tortoises!! We went on a little tour and saw the only fresh water lake in all the islands and the Galapaguera where they raise the baby tortoises to ensure their survival. They collect the eggs and hatch them in incubators and then raise the babies in cages unfortunately. The cages are necessary since the wee babies get eaten by dogs, cats, and rats. All animals that were introduced to the Galapagos by the first settlers.

Transit from Panama to Galapagos

Whoa! So it's been awhile since I last wrote....
The problem with Panama city is that it's like a black hole, you get sucked into endless provisioning for the big crossing of the ocean. So you spend weeks shopping shopping shopping and in most other cases waiting for parts for the boat. You see, getting to Galapagos (~1000miles from mainland) or Marquesas (~4000miles from mainland) and finding out then that you need a boat part or to fix something will cost many more dollars providing you even make it there in the first place. For us we were waiting on autopilot parts. The autopilot is a very important piece of equipment for sanity's sake, as it's not realistic to be at the helm constantly--especially when there's only two people to share 24hours and then repeat until you reach your destination however many days later. It took nine to get to Galapagos, and we were expecting 10 or more. For the Marquesas from here, it will be around 30 days. See? Not realistic to be at the helm all that time.
Anyhoo, blogging about provisioning is as exciting as it sounds, hence no blog for a month while we sorted ourselves out in Panama. And of course no blog during the transit since we aren't one of them fancy boats that has internet capability.
The passage here was relatively non-eventful, I'm getting better at staying awake my entire 4 hour shift, though I still have to pop a few gravol for the the first few days (ok, so pretty much the entire time) which doesn't provide wakefulness. At least not for me. Although in the beginning gravol really tripped me out and I had a conversation with the autopilot once. Yes, I did. No I don't remember what we discussed, but I had a pretty good chuckle when I came to. I think I was in one of those quasi-wake/sleep moments. Let's not talk about this again.
The first two days we had really good wind, I guess 20 knots but it was behind us, and though there were irritatingly large waves, we were going with them and this makes all the difference. And that horrid current that was against us as we approached Panama city was with us on the way out and it's hard to complain when you're averaging 6-7knots relatively comfortably in the right direction. The next couple of days were pretty calm, light breeze but since it was on our nose we decided to motor through it. I figure that was the infamous ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone--the region where the northeasterly and southeasterly tradewinds converge near the equator) that is known for no wind and the doldrums. However, it also is known for some nasty squalls with lightning and the like, so I spent my time watching the clouds and distant lightning and hoping not to get hit. It worked.
Then we were in winds that were so consistent that they should have been the southeast tradewinds but they were coming from the southwest, which was nearly on our nose and we were traveling upwind again. Upwind is likely the most uncomfortable and we were on a 20-30 degree angle for five days. But the wind was consistent and like I said it only took us 9 days. When you cross the equator you are suppose to honour King Neptune by pouring him a shot of the best alcohol on board and that we did, he got the 12 year old scotch.
We haven't seen much of the island(s) yet, so I will blog about them in a few days after we've had a chance to explore......
Photos: Blue beaked boobie that hung out with us for a day and night, yep he slept there with his beak under his wing--don't know how he hung on, Alex went up to him and pet him too; kicker rock off of Isla San Cristobal, this was our first glimpse of the Galapagos; seal munching on a fish right beside our boat; entering Wreck Bay at Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos.